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We the People

We the People go to the polls today to engage in our sacred, inalienable right. The outcome of today’s midterm congressional elections will select the citizens who will come to Washington to lead our federal government for the next two years.

Of course, Congress and all of Washington, D.C., are bracing for yet another political sea change from today’s elections. The anger and anxiety over our country’s economic troubles and the memories of the Wall Street financial crisis and bailouts are as fresh as ever. And this bumpy political ride isn’t likely to end with this year’s elections. Governing on Capitol Hill could get harder before it gets easier. So hold on to your chads.

Does this landscape of shifting political power in Washington make it more difficult for ICBA to represent the nation’s community banks? No, it doesn’t.

ICBA will always engage and educate any public official, regardless of his or her party affiliation, on community banking issues. Whoever the American voters elect to office will be the people ICBA works with in good faith for community banks and for Main Street America.

That doesn’t mean ICBA will shy away from vigorously opposing proposals or ideas that are harmful to community banks. We won’t. Our longstanding advocacy record demonstrates that. Whatever judgments American voters make in this midterm election, or in any election for that matter, ICBA will work alongside our members, our leadership bankers and our state and regional association partners to advance and promote the community banking industry.

So let the voters decide. Let our great, tumultuous democracy reign. And after the ballots are counted, ICBA will be united and ready to move forward to achieve the best public policies that the American people want.

That formula would not capture all the unsecured liabilities that the large banks have. The strong benefit from the change in the assessment base to all assets is that it captures all of a large bank’s assets, including its international assets. Banks over $100 billion in assets now have a much larger assessment base to deal with than they did when it was just total domestic deposits, which will mean lower rates for community banks.